Strength through Weakness
by Kaoupa
Summary: Toph Beifong was born blind, but her condition wasn't any true handicap. She was awesome, and everyone had to deal with it. What would happen if all her friends had similar problems? How would they develop their strengths through their weaknesses?


A/N: While the conditions/disabilities of the Gaang's members should all be apparent, I feel I should go into detail for Zuko's condition, since it's less-known; hypothyroidism, where the body cannot produce enough thyroid hormone, slowing down metabolism, which can cause many other effects.

Tell me what you think of this.

Inspired by the Archive Of Our Own ATLA story "Nothing Softer and Weaker."

The South Pole

"I'm just saying, Katara, you don't have to come with me whenever I go fishing!"

"Ugh, Sokka, is that one of your whole "male superiority" things again? I'm sick of it! And we need all we can catch right now!"

Sighing, Sokka began "It's not because of that. I'm just saying, with your…"

Katara cut him off mid-sentence, her eyes slightly calmer. "Because of my arms?" She said, tilting her head upwards and raising her arms up. While the two appendages were covered in water, with an ice tip (and a speared fish) at the end of one of them, there was also something under the layer of liquid.

Burn scars.

Sighing, she said "And Sokka, I got burned years ago. You don't have to worry me. And you still have to worry about sunburn whenever it's not night!"

Scowling, Sokka turned away from his sister, pulling his hood more over his pink eyes, and covering his white hair and skin. "I just have a skin thing, Katara! You can barely move your arms anymore unless you use your water magic to do it!"

"It's _waterbending!_ "

Sokka had to admit, finding someone younger than his sister in an iceberg was rather strange. Him having a creature much bigger than a tent was even stranger. Him claiming to be one of the long-extinct Air Nomads was more bizarre yet. He could live with this. Nothing that couldn't be explained.

What he had trouble dealing with was the fact that the kid was somehow talking, but wasn't moving his _mouth._

"Well, if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can-"

"Okay, freaky kid, how are you doing that?!"

Tilting his head in confusion, the bald kid moved his hands again, causing Sokka to hear the words "Doing what?"

"That thing right there! You're not moving your mouth! You're moving your hands! _Speech doesn't come from people's hands!"_

An amused smirk spread over Aang's face, which put Sokka on guard. "Oh, this? It's just soundbending."

"Soundbending?" Katara parrotted, a confused look on her face.

Aang nodded, and began moving his hands again. "It's how I got my mastery tattoos. I can create sounds by manipulating vibrations in the air."

"Cool talking, kid." Sokka drawled. "Really nice, you can speak to people in a new way. Why can't you just talk normally?"

An strange look came over Aang's face. He started signing very quickly.

"I can't. I'm mute."

"Mute?" Sokka echoed, looking puzzled.

"I can't talk by... well, with my mouth."

There was an awkward silence after that.

"...Er… want to come with us?" Katara asked, trying to break the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"Huh? Oh! Sure!" Aang signed, quickly returning to his previous energetic state.

"In the name of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation; where are you keeping the Avatar?!"

 _I never thought that the search would land us here in the South Pole…_ Jee thought as he looked out over the small encampment of women and children. _If there ever was an Avatar down here, the Raiders likely caught them with the waterbenders._

 _And as for the people, they're down on their luck, but they're hardly savages here..._

Jee quietly looked out at the village of Water Tribesmen, feeling a small amount of pity wash over him when he saw the young girl in the back with the burned arms picking up the spirit-touched one.

 _They certainly treat those touched by the spirits differently out here…_ he pondered, watching the girl do her best to help him up and pulling his hood back over his head, ignoring his horrific features. _Horrible for those so young to have been affected so much…_

Before Jee could focus any further, his thoughts were overtaken by the small boy sledding into the village on… a penguin?

And sending Jee into a pile of snow in the process.

 _Brat!_ He thought, seeing red as he got up.

Later...

Muttering as he climbed back on board the ship, Jee had to admit, the day had not gone well after the airbender had run into them, and then run off to get them to follow him.

The ringing in his ears from the sheer _noise_ the kid had hit him with once they were several hundred feet away from the village still hadn't stopped.

 _Never thought i'd say this, but I wish the prince had come with us..._ Jee thought, quietly thinking of his superior.

With the prince's eternally brattish behavior, he would have been much happier if he had known that at least the prince's ears were suffering as much as his were now.

But the doctor had made his orders clear; no matter how much Zuko wanted to go out and search for the Avatar, the cold of the Pole was too intense for him to leave the well-heated ship. The prince's condition made cold environments potentially dangerous to him.

 _He'll probably yell at us for the next week about how we had the Avatar in our grasp and let him get away…_ Jee thought sourly. _Lovely._

Kyoshi Island

When Aang felt the bag get pulled off of his head, the first thing he did was notice the group of women in strange clothing standing in front of him.

The second thing he did was try to speak, which was when he realized his hands were tied up, and too securely to make the motions necessary for complex noises.

Starting to tug his hands forward to try getting them together so he could start to talk, he realized that Sokka was starting to yell.

"Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?"

"There were no men! We ambushed you! And we are asking the questions here!" One of the group piped up.

"Now, why are you and your allies on our island, cursed one? Are you here to spy on us for the Fire Nation?" An older man said, stepping to the front of the group.

"-Okay, firstly, I am not cursed! Secondly, why would we be working with the Fire Nation? They did that to my sister!" Sokka screeched, gesturing towards Katara's burned arms with his head. "And there's no way a bunch of girls beat us!"

"A bunch of girls, huh? The Unagi's going to eat well tonight." The warrior said, though she did not get any closer to Sokka.

"Suki, calm yourself." The older man said.

"Yes, Oyaji." Suki sighed.

"Forgive my brother, he's an idiot." Katara said, rolling her eyes.

"We'll see about that. And why hasn't your friend there spoken yet?" Suki asked, her eyes flashing to Aang.

"He's mute." Katara said. "He uses his airbending to talk."

"Impossible!" Suki exclaimed. "The only airbender left was supposedly the Avatar, and he vanished a hundred years ago. There's no way he's the Avatar." She said, looking at Aang with clear disbelief.

Just as Aang managed to free his right hand.

"Um, I am the Avatwar-"

Aang froze up in embarrassment. He also had caught everyone's attention, especially since his mouth wasn't moving.

"Cwould wou wet wus gwo? Pwease?"

At that point, Katara and Sokka were both suppressing snickers at Aang's expense.

The Kyoshi Warriors and Oyaji were too busy untying and apologizing to the three to find the situation very funny.

Later...

"So, you were born like this?" Suki asked Sokka, curiously looking over his white skin and hair, ignoring the fires in the background, knowing that the Fire Nation was being handled by her fellow warriors.

"Yeah." Sokka nodded. "My dad always said that it freaked him and mom out when I was born. They thought I was cursed or something. But I turned out fine, though!"

"Well, you turned out _mostly_ fine." Suki deadpanned. Smiling, she added "I think I can live with mostly fine, though."

"What's that mean?" Sokka said, sounding puzzled.

Suki kissed him, then pulled back, smiling at him. "I may be a warrior, but i'm a girl too."

Sokka looked rather surprised, but smiled back at her.

"Thanks."

"No problem, o cursed one."

"For the last time, i'm not curs-! oh. That was a joke, wasn't it?"

"You just caught on?"

Meanwhile...

 _So this is the Prince Zuko those guys work for, huh?_ Aang thought, jumping out of the way of several fireballs, and releasing a blast of wind back at the prince. _The royalty must have started stocking up on fattier foods in the last hundred years..._

The sad part was, it was true.

Prince Zuko, while nowhere near as heavyset as some of the nobles that Aang had seen from a distance in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, was clearly not as well-built as the average person in terms of weight.

However, judging by how easily he threw his fire around, his… girth, didn't seem to be presenting too much of a problem for him.

"I heard that you can't speak without your bending, Avatar…" Zuko muttered, firing a blast at Aang, who swiftly jumped out of the way.

Though he felt a pang of alarm when he saw the blast hit the house directly behind him instead, setting it afire.

"I can't, so what?" Aang signed, releasing the words into the air.

"Nothing!" Zuko exclaimed, releasing several more blasts. "I just wanted to see for myself that the Avatar was cursed."

 _I have to stop him from fighting more… a blast should do it._ Aang thought, leaping back and creating vacuums around his ears. _You want cursed? I'll give you cursed!_ Aang narrowed his eyes as he drew back his staff.

Afterwards…

"What did you say, Lieutenant?" Zuko asked.

While normally he would be offended the prince hadn't paid attention to him talking, Jee took pity on the prince this time, since he had just come out of an encounter with the Avatar.

Jee remembered all too well what it had been like after he had fought him.

"I said, I see you found out why we said you shouldn't go after him till we figure out a way to counter that… noisemaker technique."

Zuko scowled, but conceded the point. The Avatar had escaped him twice now due to that (literally) headache-inducing technique…

"...Did you have anything in mind, Lieutenant?"

Jee smirked.

"Well, I was thinking of finding something to plug our ears with, for starters. Sir."

Northern Air Temple

"Thanks for helping me with this, man." Sokka said, grabbing a large roll of black cloth from another part of the room.

"No problem, young man!" The Mechanist responded cheerfully, taking the cloth from Sokka and pulling out a knife. "I was planning to invent a full-body suit sooner or later anyways! I could use one for some of my projects..." He muttered, cutting part of the cloth into the shape of an arm sleeve.

"Yeah!" Sokka said. "And it'd be nice if you could throw in some glasses too."

"I'll see what I can do." The Mechanist said, nodding in affirmation.

Later…

"Thanks for doing this!" Sokka exclaimed, picking up the suit that the Mechanist had made for him. With it made of black cloth that covered the body, as well as a mask that covered his face, he had to admit it looked rather impressive.

"Wait… what's with the dot?" Sokka asked, noticing a blue dot on the middle of the forehead, above the two glass lenses that were more or less where Sokka's eyes would go.

"Oh, that?" The Mechanist said. "It's for the Water Tribes, of course!"

"Awesome!" Sokka said, cheering up almost instantly.

North Pole

 _Okay, calm down_. Sokka thought to himself, the facial covering of his uniform on the ground next to him. _Hot girl sitting next to you, seems to be interested in you… stay calm. Start conversation..._

However, the "hot girl" seemed to be interested in beating him to the punch.

"I must admit, i've never seen someone else with my hair color before." Princess Yue said, curious about the Southern boy sitting next to her.

"I haven't either, I was born this way." Sokka said. "Dad and Mom always thought that the spirits had cursed me or something."

"Cursed? That seems rather cruel to call their own son." Yue raised an eyebrow in response at Sokka.

"Hey, they did their best to help me and Katara!" Sokka said quickly. "Dad taught me everything he knew about fighting."

Face falling slightly, he muttered "I just wish i'd gotten to go ice dodging with him…"

"You went ice dodging?" Yue tilted her head, curious. "That's not done much anymore up here."

"Seriously?! What do you do to become adults, then?" Sokka asked, a puzzled look coming over his face.

"Birthday parties and engagements, mostly." Yue stated.

North Pole

"All right everyone, today we will be learning how to treat burn scars and burns." Yugoda said. "And we have been given a volunteer to aid us."

Katara did her best to smile at the children sitting in front of her and staring at her.

'Why are your arms red?" One of them asked, curiosity clear on her face.

Katara winced.

"Her arms were burned by the Fire Nation, Nemi." Yugoda smiled at the tiny girl. "Now, everyone, we are going to see if we can help her get them fixed."

"Okay!" The children chorused, running to the pots of water and drawing out the contents.

Dueling Arena

Jumping to the side and rolling to avoid the wave of water Pakku had sent her way, Katara righted herself quickly, then sent a ice spike from the wave back at Pakku, who turned it into water with a swift gesture.

"You fight well, girl." Pakku calmly sent a wave of water at her, "Even with those arms of yours."

Katara winced as she swung her arms around with the water surrounding them, diverting Pakku's stream to her left. Despite the best efforts of both Yugoda and the children at the Huts, they had not been able to do much for her burns.

 _Okay, how do I win this?_ Katara thought, _Going against him with sheer power is pointless, maybe if I throw up some fo-!_

Her train of thought was interrupted by the stream of water that came from directly behind her, washing her onto the ground.

As she got up, she noticed that Pakku wasn't even attacking her.

As she tried to send another wave at him, he effortlessly sent it back, making her leap out of the way yet again.

 _Who am I kidding._ Katara thought. _He's a master of waterbending who's been practicing since before Dad was born. I can't beat hi..._

Her eyes widened as she came to a realization.

 _He's a master in_ his way of _waterbending._

With that, Katara stopped trying to channel the water as streams.

Instead, she drew hers around her arms, forcing out the chi he had left in it via direct contact, and extended the streams so they went far past her arms.

 _So I won't fight his way._

Zhao's Ship

"I intend to… remove the moon, as a factor." Zhao calmly said.

He could not have sounded more ominous to Iroh if he had been actively trying to do so.

"Remove the moon? How?!" Iroh sounded completely baffled

 _What does he mean?_ Zuko thought. While he wasn't initially planning to go with Zhao's troops when his ship made landfall, Iroh had talked him into staying behind, since he couldn't swim in the arctic water. Though getting to stay on Zhao's (rather warm) ship without fighting anyone so far was rather nice, he had to admit.

He was still too close to Zhao for comfort, though.

"Admiral Choi! Prepare to meet your maker!"

Blinking, Zuko brought his head up fast enough to see Zhao chuck a Water Tribesman over the bridge.

 _Strange._ He thought, offhandedly noticing a loud splash.

"As I was saying…" Zhao began, as if he had never been interrupted by a murder attempt, "Years ago I stumbled upon a great and powerful secret... the identity of the Moon Spirit's mortal form."

" _What?"_ Iroh's eyes had gone wide, and behind his helmet, Zuko's had as well.

Ignoring the stunned look on the former general's face, Zhao continued.

"I was a young Lieutenant serving under General Shu in the Earth Kingdom…" Zhao elaborated calmly. "I discovered a hidden library, underground in fact. I tore through scroll after scroll. One of them contained a detailed illustration and the words "moon" and "ocean." I knew then that these spirits could be found - and killed. And that it was my destiny to do so."

"Zhao! The spirits are not to be trifled with!" Iroh exclaimed, clearly shocked by what Zhao was planning to do.

 _Intentionally provoking something far stronger than you isn't a good plan, Zhao…_ Zuko quietly thought, in agreement with his uncle, thinking back to what he had accidentally done with his father.

Spirit Oasis

"Huuuh… Huuh…"

Aang was quietly hanging onto the wooden gate at the back of the Spirit Oasis, gasping for breath after the brief battle he had just had with Zhao, Katara standing there as well, and Sokka splayed out on the ground like a starfish.

And to Aang and Katara's surprise, Yue, was emerging from behind the groove where she had hidden.

"They're gone?" Yue said, quickly looking around.

"Yeah, they're gone. Don't worry." Katara said, still grabbing the post.

"Sokka, you- oh dear… Hang on!" Yue said, noticing a large burn on Sokka's leg.

To the group's surprise, Yue pulled some of the ice out from the walls, liquified it, and walked over to Sokka.

 _Huh. Well, I guess someone touched by the original waterbender would probably be a waterbender themselves…_ Katara thought to herself.

"Well, Zhao's gone at least…" Sokka gasped from his place on the floor, with Yue now getting up and moving to Katara.

She got blasted in the back by a fireball, was sent flying forwards, hit her head on the wood pole, and didn't get up.

"YUE!" Sokka screamed, getting up and running over to the girl he had befriended, quickly taking her pulse, with Katara going to her head.

"She's alive." Katara breathed in relief. "She has a bad concussion, but she'll be fine."

"And you?"

Eyes widening, Katara spun around, but was blasted off her feet and into the grass by a fireball before she could react.

From Prince Zuko.

"How did you get here?!" Sokka hissed, grabbing his club up from the ground.

Zuko's response was to blast fire at Sokka, who jumped out of the way, with the flame scorching the posts behind the pool. Hissing, Zuko then threw a fireball at _Katara._

Eyes widening, Aang quickly waved his staff and blew the flames away.

"I got them, Aang!" Sokka said, starting to drag Katara away. "Take him down!"

Aang nodded, and jumped forwards.

Shortly after…

 _He caught Aang…_ Yue thought, crawling forwards, Sokka and Katara unconscious behind her. The prince had proven to be more of a match for Aang than she had thought, though she supposed that Aang having just fought several firebenders at once would be very tiring.

 _I have… to warn someone… they caught the Avatar…_ Yue thought furiously, wriggling forward. But it wasn't much good. The concussion she had gotten from slamming headfirst into the fencepost made it hard for her to crawl, let alone run.

 _I have to do something…_ Yue thought furiously, trying to draw up the strength to move forward another few inches.

But all she managed to do was dip her hand into the Spirit Oasis.

 _Water..?_ Yue thought, then her eyes widening. _The Oasis!_

Dipping her hand the rest of the way into the pool, Yue channeled her chi into the pool, hoping that she could manage to heal her head, and warn someone from there.

But what happened next was far more amazing than she could have ever dreamed.

Later

"Okay, let me see if I've got this right." Katara said, lying in a bed, with an orb of water held over her burn. "After Zuko managed to knock out Aang somehow, Yue…"

"Merged with the moon spirit and powered the waterbenders up enough to let them turn most of the Fire Navy to scrap." Sokka confirmed, looking over the mass of wrecks and icebergs that now littered the area in front of the Northern City.

"And Aang beat Zuko after he woke up and came back, but Zuko escaped because he was faking being unconscious, and the Moon Spirit possessing Yue killed Zhao when returning, before they separated, which led to Yue passing out and being taken to the hospital?" She added.

"Yes."

"How's she doing?" Katara asked, worry spreading over her face.

Aang, sitting, started to move his hands. "She's gonna be fine. She hasn't woken up yet, but they said she was just really tired."

"Good to know." Sokka said, relief spreading over his face. Knowing that the girl he had struck up a friendship with (and somewhat of a crush) would survive was a load off his back.

"What do we do now?" Katara asked, looking to Aang again.

"Well, it's time to head to Omashu, I guess." Aang signed, his hands going through the motions. "It'll be safe from the Fire Nation, and I should be able to learn from Bumi."

"Okay, good plan." Sokka nodded, his hood back over his head.

"Okay, are you guys ready?" Katara asked, looking to both her brother and her friend, water encasing her arms.

Sokka gave her a thumbs up, with said thumb being utterly white, while Aang signed a "Yes" into the air surrounding them.

"All right! Let's go!" She said, marching towards the stables where Appa was kept.

End

A/N: Aang's soundbending is _extremely_ powerful in combat, to be blunt; combat where it's just him vs the enemy, that is. If someone is fighting alongside him, he probably won't use it, since sound doesn't really distinguish between friend and foe (while Aang can use his airbending to create airless "pockets" in his ears when he does it so he doesn't get hit with the waves as badly, he's not good enough to do it to other people as well.) Otherwise, it's not really possible to avoid a sonic blast, and getting hit with one makes fighting a lot harder. It's also how he managed to beat Zuko after he caught him and tied him up; he basically just screamed.

I was originally planning to make this bigger, but I decided against it. I just lost interest, really.

Though with that said, I will tell you that the plans also included Suki joining the Gaang early and cutting off one of her hands to escape Azula, as well as Ozai and Azula leaving Zuko behind and fleeing the capital, since Azula found documentation on the Avatar State and decided it would be a good idea to be far away when Aang arrived. Also, Kya is still alive and with the SWT force. Why? Katara was caught waterbending, but Yon Rha just burned her arms and left her for dead; while she managed to live, it's what caused her injuries in the story. Azula never caught Katara because she went with Sokka to see Hakoda and Kya, so Aang wasn't warned Katara was in danger, and the coup went through, and the Gaang didn't find out till _after_ the Fire Nation was in the walls, and as for Kuei... You can decide his fate. But, Zuko betrays the Fire Nation like canon on the DoBS by telling the Fire Nation and the Gaang their plans for the Comet, which leads to a _lot_ of unrest about the war. The final fight would have been Azula and Ozai vs the Gaang, with Mai and Ty Lee possibly backing the latter up.


End file.
